integration

I was pleased to read a recent article that creates a framework for use and adoption of blogs in higher education.The article is Kerawalla, L., Minocha, S., Kirkup, G., & Conole, G. (2009). An empirically grounded framework to guide blogging in higher education. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 25(1). I normally wouldn’t link to or blog about the article as it is walled in a proprietary garden, but the special issue on Social Software and learning in the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning is available (at least today) as a free sample.

The Framework consists of general considerations related to the functionality of the blog, its use relationship with other course tools and its role in pedagogy. The Framework then presents a raft of question to guide planning and implementation. The Framework is a good start and asks many of the detailed questions that will lead to much better, or at least more thoughtful implementation of blogs in formal courses.

I like a framework or a model to be simple enough to serve as an easily remembered mnemonic to guide practice, rather than a never quite complete, but often too many, list of questions. So brainstorming a way to talk about the complexity of implementing a blog innovation, takes me back to Durkheim’s (suicide theory) and the use by Tinto and many other educators to talk about the need for academic and social integration to explain healthy living and persistence in formal courses. The integration factors also resonate with Everett Rogers characteristics of successful interventions – one of the main factors of which is Compatibility or how easily the innovation meshes with or integrates with other salient features of the learning context.